Reception year issues with DS's school

[stripycatlola]

We have recently been invited to a meeting with EP and class teacher to discuss our and their observation regarding the DS's social interaction with other children and his general behavior. He has speech delay and is currently being seen by a private speech therapist. There have been issues with his interaction with other children at the nurseries he attended and the school have also observed some issues but were not initially too concerned. They have nonetheless invited the EP to come and observe him and she did. She had pin-pointed some issues that we need to work on, mainly to do with his interaction with other children, sharing but there was nothing major in my opinion and noone said there were any big concerns. DS's teacher has mentioned that the school has a counsellor who comes in and works with some children at school and that she can work with our DS on some social situations that are like social stories. I did feel it was a bit strange that a counsellor was going to do this and did not object but asked to check this person's credentials. The EP was rather neutral about this and did not object to this but said it was up to us, parents to decide. The teacher was able to produce the details about the counsellor very quickly and having seen them, I really felt surprised. It said that she worked with children who were going through some stressful times and had families divorcing or had someone recently deceased in the family - none of which applies to us. As my DS is under a private speech therapist, I consulted the ST about this and she said that she has done these social stories before and could work with him and could instruct us on how to work with him at home and school-how to help him in the classroom. So I told Ds's teacher about doing the social stories with the ST rather than the counsellor. She was laughing as I was telling her this and then said - "So you are saying no to this? Well, we suggested and you said no!" I said that you suggested social stories and we feel that ST has the right skills and experience whereas the other person does not. The teacher said she would speak to the ST about this and that was that. Today, the ST called me and said that the teacher was cross with her for us not accepting the counsellor and basically, told the ST off. The ST tried asking what was the benefit of the counsellor for our DS but did not get a coherent response (they said, she might do social stories or might talk to him or do something else). I am really at a loss now and not sure what to do in this situation. On one hand there are no major concerns about our DS, on the other, the school seems to be insisting on bringing in the counsellor (who's actually a volunteer) and they are not explaining the reasons. I just need some advise on how to proceed from here. Should I try and get to the bottom of this/talk to the HT? Many thanks.

[chrismissymoomoomee]

That said I can't really see the issue, its certainly not going to harm DS to have a little one on one time reading some stories and playing a few games. We are used to our kids and sometimes it takes an outsider to see something thats right under our noses, I'm not suggesting there is an issue but the school must have a reason to think so somewhere along the line.

I would have a word with the head and ask for clear reasons and then decide from there.

[stripycatlola]

chrismissymoomoomee, we are thinking about going to the ht about this, especially as the class teacher upset our ST who is only trying to help

[chrismissymoomoomee]

Does your school have an open door policy for seeing the ht? It may be better to have an informal word to start with. The school seem quite insistant though so its odd they haven't explained in more detail. Maybe they didn't want to go into great detail with your ST and will be more open with you?